Spanish apparel company Mango is set to open 60,000 square meters of new selling space in 2019, between company-owned stores and franchises. The move is part of a continued retail strategy based on opening larger stores and closing smaller ones, which has led the brand’s average store size to increase by 54 percent since 2012.

“Specifically, 15,000 square meters correspond to 27 new company stores and 45,000 square meters to new franchises located around the world”, explained Mango in a statement, stressing that the franchise model is central to the company’s expansion plans. Franchises currently represent 55 percent of the brand’s retail outlets.

The company closed 2018 with a total of 211 megastores in 110 countries, 20 of which opened last year. Its average selling space grew by 1.8 percent in the period, from 798,000 square meters to 812,000 square meters.

However, despite having its eye set on expanding its retail network, Mango finds it equally important for ecommerce to account for a larger percentage of its revenues. The company said it has recorded “a spectacular increase in online sales” in 2018, when ecommerce turnover rose by 15.4 percent, which corresponds to 15.5 percent of the brand's total turnover. In 2019, Mango expects online sales to reach 20 percent of the total turnover -- “a target initially established for the close of 2020”, the company celebrated.